STATE HOUSE ROUNDUP -- Tongue-tied at the end of the race

Monday

There was no shortage of goblins, ghouls and baseball players parading through the streets of Boston, but the most popular boogeyman this campaign season was unquestionably Geoff Diehl.

The state representative from Whitman, who wrapped himself in Donald Trump in 2016 when basically no one else in Massachusetts would, became to Democrats in this state what Nancy Pelosi is to Republicans nationally -- a icon for all they see wrong in politics.

Fair or not, Democrats asked voters to judge everyone from Gov. Charlie Baker and Lt. Gov. Karyn Polito to, well, Diehl himself based on where they stood relative to Diehl's candidacy for U.S. Senate against Elizabeth Warren.

Democrat for governor Jay Gonzalez backed off the Diehl messaging only slightly in his final debate against Baker Nov. 1, elevating GOP attorney general candidate Jay McMahon to a seat just beneath Diehl's pedestal.

How, Gonzalez asked, could Baker go on and on about his support for "common sense" gun restrictions and his admiration for Attorney General Maura Healey's work on opioid abuse and support replacing her with McMahon?

Baker, as he had throughout the campaign, struggled with the logic of his position. Basically, the governor said before the primaries that he would support the GOP ticket in 2018, and now he can't go back on his word, even if he could barely muster a plausible reason for his support for Diehl or McMahon.

After the debate, a reporter asked Baker whether he thought the Republican ticket was dragging him down.

His answer, "I think, as I said, I said I was going to support the ticket, but in the end I do believe voters in Massachusetts will make their decision on this race based on the performance and the work and the vision that the lieutenant governor and I have put forth for the last four years."

And he could say that because it didn't appear he was actually trying to help Diehl or McMahon -- he may actually have hurt them -- and the reality is that backing them didn't hurt Baker in his race, apart from some uncomfortable moments trying unsuccessfully to explain why he was behind candidates who do not share his values on major issues.

But Baker wasn't the only one who seemed out of sorts in the closing days of this campaign with their decision to support their own party. House Speaker Robert DeLeo tripped over his words last week when asked if he would be voting for Gonzalez and why.

The speaker almost seemed as though he was going to demur, before mustering a half-hearted declaration of support for Gonzalez, during which he mentioned his party affiliation five times in two sentences.

Boston Mayor Marty Walsh, an ally of Baker's, would also have told you if you asked him that he backed Gonzalez. The powerful mayor was not an aggressive campaigner for Gonzalez, however, and like other Democrats cloaked his support for Baker's rival in support for the Democrats' coordinated campaign.

President Donald Trump was omnipresent in the campaign, and yet never physically present, as some thought might have happened given Diehl's place on the ballot against Trump nemesis Elizabeth Warren.

Last week, however, started with Baker disavowing Trump's pledge to try to end birthright citizenship by executive order, instead of a constitutional amendment, and Baker, DeLeo and Senate President Karen Spilka all criticizing Trump's suggestion that the tragic shooting at a Pittsburgh synagogue the previous weekend could have been prevented with an armed guard.

"Having some sort of security at a temple or place of worship is not the answer," said Spilka, who is Jewish.

DeLeo said that in the immediate aftermath of the shooting, there should be a period for grieving. But he also said the House will take another look at the state's gun laws next year to see if there are areas where they can be tightened.

The House will also look later this month at National Grid's lockout of nearly 1,250 gas workers, and DeLeo this week received a response from Administration and Finance Secretary Michael Heffernan about the cost of the lockout, in hard dollars and cents.

While one of the biggest concerns during the lockout has been safety, Heffernan reported that more than $13 million in unemployment benefits have been paid out to workers since June 25, and MassHealth is on the hook for roughly $70,000 a month in health benefits for workers who lost their insurance.

Based on October expenses, the state is also paying $9,000 a month for food stamps for 100 families impacted by the lockout.

"These are avoidable costs to the commonwealth. The speaker won't be satisfied until the workers are back on the job," DeLeo's spokeswoman Catherine Williams said.